Kelsey's Bridge embodies legacy of Kelsey Kramer

EAST COVENTRY — Every parent’s fear became a reality for Lori and Bill Kramer in September 2011 when their only daughter, Kelsey, died after a vehicle crash.

Lori and Bill, along with Kelsey’s brother, Kyle, were left with more questions than answers.

Now, one year after the tragedy, the Kramers’ “biggest fear is that she’s going to be forgotten.”

But the relationships Kelsey, 16, made with friends at Owen J. Roberts, where she was a junior when she died, as well as the imprint she left on the hearts of all those who knew her, spurred a project that will ensure memories of Kelsey live on.

Today, Kelsey’s Bridge will be dedicated.

The wooden structure took husband and wife craftsmen Jeff Wynn and Linda Condy countless hours to create, designing and building the functional masterpiece from reclaimed redwood.

However, the bridge, beautiful as it may be, pales in comparison to the love and energy that went into building it; it’s nothing without its namesake and her legacy of love.

•At 8:37 p.m. Sept. 21, 2011, Kelsey Kramer was driving a 2004 Honda Civic north on Bethel Church Road when she lost control, traveled off the road and struck a tree. Police investigating the crash confirmed she was not engaging in any reckless behavior prior to or while she was driving. She was wearing her seat belt and wasn’t on a cell phone.

A short distance away, Jeff Wynn was in his home. He heard the impact.

He went outside and headed toward the car.

“Walking up the street, I saw this car facing uphill, in the wrong lane, idling, and I couldn’t see any damage until I got up close,” Wynn said, the memory of those moments alive in his voice.

He saw a young woman in the driver’s seat.

“I went up to this person and very instinctively put two fingers on her neck to check for a pulse,” Wynn said. “I saw no injury, there was no blood or anything.

“I felt immediately a sense of peace. It was very quiet and peaceful, and it was very serene,” he recalled.

Wynn later told Lori Kramer that when he reached out to touch her daughter, he “felt like an angel touched me back. I knew she was at peace.”

Emergency responders arrived and rescued Kelsey from the car. She was taken to Reading Hospital and Medical Center. The following day, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011, she died from her injuries.

•In the days that followed Kelsey’s death, all who knew her were left searching for an explanation. For many, that search led to the scene of the crash where a makeshift memorial was taking form. Kelsey’s friends and classmates parked in the lot of Bethel United Methodist Church and walked along a nearly nonexistent shoulder of the curvy road to the memorial.

Although none of them knew Kelsey, Bethel church’s parishioners took note of the outpouring of love and grief, and recognized the danger of these kids walking along the road and standing closely by passing cars.

Pastor Jacqueline Hines said her parishioners decided they wanted to clear a path through the woods that would allow for safe access to the memorial. “It’s a time when actions and the love speak louder than any words,” Hines said just days after the path was clear, referencing the spirit with which the labor was done. “It was beautiful. God showed up.”

The path was only the beginning. A bench created a permanent place for guests to sit and reflect, the area marked by a sign, “Kelsey’s Path,” crafted by Wynn and Condy. But something was missing.

•Bill Kramer had “no desire to check out the accident scene.” He couldn’t bring himself to that place where his daughter’s physical being began slipping away. But when he learned that Kelsey’s friends were going there, he had to go.

“I had passed this place before and that’s what made me come down here, to protect the kids,” he said. “The kids were down here and lost.”

When the path was cleared, Bill Kramer said he felt better about the safety of the children going to the memorial. But he took a look around and wanted to clean up the grassy area between the entrance to the path and the church’s parking lot.

“I requested from the church, would they be OK with me cleaning up the area,” he said. “Then the pastor came out and took me over to the Wynns.”

Bill Kramer said Jeff Wynn was the one who suggested building a bridge on the grassy area adjacent to the church’s parking lot.

Kramer said Pastor Hines was onboard with the plan for the bridge, as was the rest of the church.

With the success of many fund-raising events, a good number of them organized by Kelsey’s friends, enough money was raised to pay for the bare bones of the project. Generosity paid for the rest. Jeff Wynn and Linda Condy were generous in their work, as were many others who gave from their hearts.

Condy said the project was very different from any work she and her husband had ever done before.

“Jeff and I are in our own little world doing our thing,” she said, noting that even most people in her church didn’t know what they did professionally. “And then all of a sudden, you’re bringing in kids, adults, all of these people” to help with the project, “and I think it’s a positive. It’s profound, the connection of people who are willing to do this, and you see some of the long, long hours people are giving and that’s really inspiring and hopefully it’s helping the Kramers, too.”

Condy said she didn’t know Kelsey, nor did Condy and Wynn’s daughter, who attends Owen J. Roberts. But they’ve gotten to know Kelsey’s spirit, an eventuality everyone involved in the project would realize.

“When you saw her picture you thought, ‘Oh my gosh, how beautiful she was ... her smile, and how that life was cut short; and just how the kids all responded.”

“We got to hear stories all the time about how if somebody had nobody to eat lunch with them, Kelsey would go and sit with them,” she said. “I really, really like that about her. And you could just see by the response (from her friends) how her life was really lived.”

•The dedication of Kelsey’s Bridge today, surrounded by a garden, marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.

“The flowers, the labor, the trucks, the equipment, it’s probably a $100,000 job,” Bill Kramer said. “Where do all these donations come from? The giving has just been phenomenal.”

Standing under the gazebo on Kelsey’s Bridge, Kramer looked around at what’s transpired over 12 months since he last heard his daughter’s voice.

“The church, the accident, it all had a meaning,” he said. “We want our kids to do good things. She’s still doing good things, just in a different way.”

Bill and Lori Kramer have received countless letters since Kelsey’s passing. Some of them are from people they know, others from strangers. Every letter shares a story of a kind, loving, generous girl who wanted to share happiness with others.

Bill Kramer said his daughter didn’t move mountains with her actions, but she made people feel important because she genuinely cared. His favorite letters come from people describing simple gestures of kindness Kelsey sent their way.

Lori Kramer said the letters show Kelsey continues to make a difference in people’s lives. She said she didn’t truly realize the influence Kelsey had on others until after her passing.

One letter came from a girl who had contemplated suicide. Seeing what Kelsey’s death has done to her friends and family, the girl said she would never take her own life.

Lori Kramer said she hopes that Kelsey’s peers are living life to the fullest while not taking risks.

“Kelsey was doing all the right things, and look what happened,” she said. “We’ve all been teenagers, but hopefully they’re being a little bit smarter in their choices.”

Lori Kramer said words can’t describe her gratitude for every person who helped make Kelsey’s Bridge happen. But it’s with a heavy heart that she watches the bridge be dedicated.

“It’s just inspiring, as the whole dedication is coming together, it’s a beautiful thing,” she said. “But I wish I wasn’t doing it. I wish it was a dedication for something else.”

•Kelsey’s signature saying was, “Everything is OK in the end. If it’s not OK, it’s not the end.”

The quote has come to mean different things to different people in the past year.

Jeff Wynn, who spent the past eight months pouring himself into his work in memory of a girl he never met, said he’s learned something invaluable from Kelsey.

“She has taught me to think about life in a different way,” Wynn said. “That something so precious at 16 years old is gone. But there’s also eternity. Look up at the stars, creation and all that is so long, and we’re so short.”

Life without Kelsey may seem impossible for her family, Wynn said. “But in eternity the Kramers are going to be with her, and in some way, it will be OK.”

Pastor Hines, who, like Wynn, was home at the time Kelsey crashed and heard the impact, said the sorrow of living without Kelsey “is unspeakable” for those who knew her.

But she spoke of the tangible ways Kelsey continues to be present in this world.

“I hope people will remember there are bridge-builders. God calls on bridge-builders,” she said. “This bridge reflects Kelsey’s life of bringing people together.”

•In addition to the memories her friends and family share, and Kelsey’s Bridge, Kelsey Kramer lives on through scholarship funds that have been dedicated in her name.

“She’s not going to be able to live out some of those dreams she had,” Lori Kramer said of her daughter. The scholarships “will help someone else realize their dreams.”

The Kelsey Kramer scholarship will be awarded annually to Owen J. Roberts High School graduating seniors who embody all that Kelsey stood for.

The Parisi Speed School in Downingtown has also dedicated a scholarship in Kelsey’s memory which will be awarded annually to provide a year of speed and agility training for an athlete who exemplifies Kelsey’s character.

More information about Kelsey and the scholarships can be found by visiting www.kelseysbridge.com. Kelsey’s mother, Lori Kramer, also keeps a blog on her website, updating the community on fund-raisers and sharing her everlasting love for her daughter.